Single Awareness Day

The week or so after Christmas usually sees the tinsel and holiday lights replaced by boxes of Valentine's and heart-shaped everything. But not everyone is thrilled with the annual celebration of sweethearts; a growing number of Americans are single on Valentine's Day — and loving it.

As so many rom-coms are fond of reminding us, there's still a lot of societal anxiety surrounding being "un-paired," especially on Valentine's Day. So the un-attached have begun to seek their validation and solidarity on February 14th, celebrating Singles Awareness Day, the only partly ironic alternative to our national celebration of romance.

The response to the commercialization of a holiday that turns from childhood fun into a full-blown anxiety-fest for some people is to treat yourself rather than some significant other. Just check out this infographic we've whipped up on these two competing holidays. Singles Awareness revelers send themselves (or their happily single friends) flowers, candy and (as we always recommend) gift baskets, just as they would on Valentine's for their significant others. But the tone is decidedly different.

Are you one of the happily single going into this year's national love fest? Are you going out with friends? Do you look good in black and green?

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